User:Chcameron/Layar

Layar is a privately held technology company based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that specializes in mobile augmented reality (AR) and image recognition products and services. Its best known products include the Layar App mobile AR application and the Layar Creator, a web-based software as a service (SaaS) tool for creating mobile image recognition-based AR experiences.

Layar was founded in June, 2009, with the launch of the "Layar Reality Browser" mobile application for Android exclusively in the Netherlands. (R) Following a global launch for both Android and iOS, Layar amassed over 1 million users in its first 8 months. (R) With the release of the Layar Creator in June, 2012, the company created a platform on which anyone could easily create interactive AR campaigns that could be viewed by "scanning" with the Layar App. (R) Notable clients include Walmart, Hearst, Playboy, BMW, Elle, Inc., Glamour, Men's Health, Nissan, Ford, Kraft and Heineken. (R)

In June, 2014, the company was acquired by London-based competitor Blippar for an undisclosed amount. (R)

2009: Founding & Launch
Layar was founded in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in June, 2009, by Dutch entrepreneurs Raimo van der Klein, Claire Boonstra and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald. (R) Then known as SPRXmobile, the company released the Layar Reality Browser (later known simply as "Layar"), a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) application for the Android mobile operating system. The app allowed users to view groups ("layers") of location-based points-of-interest (POIs) in the immediate area around them through the lens of their smartphone camera. (R) The app initially launched locally in the Netherlands, and included five partner layers: ING, funda, Hyves, Tempo-Team and Zekur. (R)

In July, 2009, the company opened the Layar development platform to the public, allowing anyone to freely create their own layers from a database of POIs. (R) One month later, 87 layers had been published by developers using the Layar API, including layers for Wikipedia articles and Twitter posts. (R) In August, the company released Layar 2.0 for Android, which made the app available to all regions for the first time. The company partnered with Samsung to pre-install Layar 2.0 on Samsung's first Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy i7500 (R), and later the Samsung Galaxy Portal (R) and Samsung Galaxy S (R). The following month, Layar added 3D model support, making it possible to view 3D objects within layers. (R) In October, Layar was released in the App Store for the iPhone 3GS (R) but was removed in December due to frequent crashes (R) before returning three months later. (R)

2010-11: Funding, Growth & New Experiments
In February of 2010, having surpassed 1 million app downloads and 375 published layers, Layar secured €2.5 million ($3.4 million) in venture funding from Sunstone Capital and Prime Technology Ventures. (R) In April, Layar announced the launch of a content store and payment system to allow developers to charge users for access to layers, (R) but this idea failed to gain traction and was eventually retired in 2012. Useage of Layar by both end-users and developers continued to grow throughout the year, and by July, 2010, over 1000 layers had been published. (R) In November, Layar raised a second round of funding led by Intel Capital totalling €10 million ($13.6 million), and announced it would be expanding its technology to include computer vision and image recognition. (R) The company eventually added these features to its platform in August, 2011, with the introduction of "Vision Layers," which allowed users to view layer content by "scanning" a flat 2D surface, such as a magazine, poster or newspaper. (R) 2011 also saw the launch of the Layar Player, a free iOS SDK that allowed iOS developers to embed AR layers into their own apps, (R) and Layar Connect, an API through which third-party developers could create full-service content management systems for the creation of layers. (R) By September, 2011, the Layar mobile app had been downloaded over 10 million times. (R)

In December of 2011, Layar launched a second mobile application called Stiktu which allowed users to scan 2D objects in the real world and add text, photos, sketches or stickers on top of them in augmented reality. Other users who scanned the same objects with the Stiktu app would also see the content, and could like, comment and add their own post to that object. (R) The app garnered a small, loyal user base, but less than a year later Layar announced it was ceasing development of the app to focus on other initiatives. (R) The app remained available until it was officially shut down in December, 2013. (R)

2012-13: Focus on Image Recognition & The Layar Creator
In the early half of 2012, Layar began to focus primarily on image recognition by working with several Dutch publishers to add interactive Vision layer content to their publications. These early partners included lifestyle magazines (R), fashion magazines (R), entertainment guides (R), home goods catalogues (R), comic books (R), direct mailing advertisements (R), business magazines (R), business books (R) and more.

On June 5, 2012, Layar introduced the Layar Creator, a web-based software as a service (SaaS) tool that significantly simplified the creation of "Vision Layers," allowing anyone to quickly and easily produce image recognition-based AR experiences. Users could upload images of any flat target image (e.g. magazine pages, business cards, product packages, etc.) and drag-and-drop links to digital content (which are called "buttons") onto them. These buttons included Web and social media links, videos, photo slideshows, audio files and more. Anyone then "scanning" the original target image with the Layar mobile app would see this content appear on their device in context with the original image. (R) The launch of the Creator represented the culmination of a monthslong pivot for Layar toward image recognition-based AR content and toward a potential monetization model for the theretofore venture funded company. For two months the Creator was free to use until a freemium pricing model was introduced in August, 2012. (R) Within a month of its launch, the Creator saw 8,400 users create 4,500 campaigns. (R)

Shortly following the launch of the Layar Creator on June 20, co-founder Raimo van der Klein announced he was stepping down as Layar CEO to take on a new role as Creative Director while remaining on the company's board of directors. Van der Klein was succeeded as CEO by Quintin Schevernels, who was hired for his "wealth of experience in growing companies and building businesses." (R) In September, 2012, Layar announced that both Van der Klein and fellow co-founder Claire Boonstra would be formally ending their day-to-day activities with the company, (R) but that both would remain as advisors. (R)

In September, 2012, the Layar mobile app surpassed 25 million downloads (R), and by the following month over 20,000 users had signed up to use the Layar Creator. (R) Throughout the remainder of the year the platform saw campaigns from notable brands such as Lonely Planet (R), Discovery Channel (R), Nissan (R) and Philips. (R) 2012 also saw an update to Layar Connect to include API access to image recognition content (R), as well as the launch of the Layar App Service, a bespoke mobile app development service for custom AR applications created for brands by Layar. (R) As a companion to this service, the company relaunched the Layar Player as the Layar SDK – a developer tool for embedding Layar's AR and image recognition technology into third-party mobile applications – in early 2013. (R)

Throughout 2013, Layar continued to grow its user base for both the Layar App and the Layar Creator, surpassing 35 million downloads and 64,000 Creator users. (R) The company also announced it had begun experimenting with porting its mobile application to the newly released Google Glass platform. (R) In 2013, more well-known publishers used Layar for AR campaigns, including Playboy (R), Reader's Digest (R), Inc. (R), Cosmopolitan (R) and Elle. (R)

2014-Present: Acquisition by Blippar
In early 2014, Layar released version 2.0 of the Layar Creator with several user interface (UI) improvements. (R) In March, the company announced it had created a version of its mobile application for Google Glass which users could use to view any of the platform's image recognition or location-based AR content. The app was released in beta as a free download on the Layar website which Glass users could manually sideload onto the device. (R)

On June 18, 2014, CEO Quintin Schevernels announced on the company's blog that Layar had been acquired by Blippar, a London-based competitor in the AR space, for an undisclosed amount, (R) creating the world's largest AR userbase. (R) In the same post, Schevernels announced that he would be stepping down as CEO. (R) In a press release, Blippar announced that Layar and its products and services would continue to exist alongside the Blippar brand. At the time, the combined companies totalled 50 million mobile app users, as well as "5,000 brands and publishers and over 100,000 self-publishing partners" in over 175 countries. (R)

Through the remainder of 2014, Layar continued working with several notable brands, including Men's Health (R), Net-a-Porter (R), Zalando (R), Nike (R), Rogers (R), Vodafone (R) and Volkswagen (R).

The Layar App
The Layar App is a free mobile augmented reality application that is currently available for the iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile operating systems. The app was originally published in 2009 as the "Layar Reality Browser" and allowed users to view groups ("layers") of location-based points-of-interest (POIs) in the immediate area around them through the lens of their smartphone camera. (R) While this functionality is still present today in the form of "Geo Layers," the app's main use is now to allow users to view image recognition-based AR content by "scanning" a flat 2D surface, such as a magazine, poster or newspaper. The app also functions as a QR code scanner. (R) As of January, 2015, the Layar App had been downloaded over 40 million times. (R)


 * Core Features
 * Search, view and interact with location-based "Geo Layers"
 * Scan, view and interact with image recognition-based Layar Creator content
 * Save a list of favorite content
 * View a list of recently viewed content
 * Detach "Vision" content from AR view
 * View a list of recommended content


 * Version History

In March, 2014, Layar introduced a beta version of the app for Google Glass which can be "sideloaded" onto the device. The app allows users to view both location-based and image recognition-based AR content by scanning trigger images with the device's camera. Users activate the app by saying "Okay Glass, scan this." (R)
 * Layar for Google Glass

The Layar Creator
The Layar Creator is a web-based software as a service (SaaS) tool that allows users to create image recognition-based AR experiences. Users can upload images of any flat target image (e.g. magazine pages, business cards, product packages, etc.) and drag-and-drop links to digital content ("buttons") onto them. Anyone using the Layar App to "scan" the original target image can see this content appear on their device in an context with the original image. (R) As of January, 2015, more than 100,000 users have signed up for the Layar Creator. (R)


 * List of Included "Buttons"
 * Website – Displays a button linking to a Web URL
 * Image – Displays an image
 * Image Carousel – Displays an interactive slideshow of images
 * Linkable Image Carousel – Displays a slideshow of images which can link to URLs
 * Video – Plays a video, either full screen or in "AR view"
 * Alpha Channel Video – Plays a video with alpha channel transparency
 * Audio – Plays an audio file
 * SoundCloud – Displays a SoundCloud audio widget
 * Twitter – Displays a feed of tweets
 * Follow on Twitter – Displays a button to follow a Twitter account
 * Share on Twitter – Displays a button to share a tweet
 * Like on Facebook – Displays a button to "Like" a Facebook page
 * Share on Facebook – Displays a button to share on Facebook
 * HTML – Displays a frame of HTML content
 * Poll – Displays an interactive poll users can vote on
 * Buy – Displays a button linking to a webshop URL
 * Call Now – Displays a button to place a phone call
 * Email – Displays a button to send an email comment
 * Contacts – Displays a button to add contact details to an address book
 * Download App – Displays a button to download a mobile app
 * Launch App – Displays a button to open an app on the user's device using URI schemes
 * Geo Layer – Displays a button to launch a location-based "Geo Layer"


 * Core Features
 * Image upload support for JPEG, PNG or PDF files
 * Organize groups of target images into campaigns
 * Drag-and-drop digital content "buttons" onto images
 * Test campaigns before publication
 * Review and download statistics and analytics for campaigns
 * Archive unused campaigns

The Layar SDK
The Layar SDK is a developer tool sold by Layar that allows mobile application developers to embed Layar's AR capabilities into their own app. (R) It was originally released in 2011 as the free Layar Player, which allowed for the viewing of location-based "Geo Layers" in third-party iOS applications. (R) Developers could specify which content could be viewed, thus creating a branded, fully-customizable, walled-off AR experience for specific uses. The Player eventually included support for image recognition-based "Vision Layers" in 2012. In January, 2013, the company re-launched the Player as the Layar SDK, which was made available for purchase for iOS and Android. Using the SDK, mobile developers can allow users of their app to view both location-based "Geo Layers" and image recognition-based AR content created in the Layar Creator. (R)

Layar Branded App Solutions
Layar Branded App Solutions is a bespoke mobile application development service offered by Layar. (R) Launched originally in 2012 as the Layar App Service, the service provides end-to-end development of fully-customized, white-label AR applications powered by Layar's technology as an alternative to the do-it-yourself Layar SDK. (R)

Layar Connect API
The Layar Connect API is a tool through which clients can connect directly to the Layar backend to create customized interfaces and content management systems to meet their individual needs. (R) It was originally launched in 2011 as a way for third-party developers to create custom interfaces for the easy creation of location-based "Geo Layers." (R) In 2012, the API was updated to include support for creating image recognition-based "Vision Layers." (R)

Technology
To present the location-based "Geo Layers," the Layar App uses a combination of the GPS and compass sensors on the user's mobile device to determine where the user is located and which direction they are facing. The location data served by the layer then allows the app to overlay icons on top of the view from the device's camera to create an augmented view of the real world. The app also uses the device's accelerometer to interpret small motions which helps to create a more seamless presentation.

To present the image recognition-based "Vision layers" and Layar Creator content, the Layar App first uses image recognition technology to identify the trigger image scanned by the user. The app then uses computer vision technology to both interpret the position of the image in 3D space and to then overlay the digital content on top of that image.

Awards

 * 2009 – eComm Communications Application Award (R)
 * 2009 – Accenture Innovation Awards: Best Mobile Concept (R)
 * 2009 – Accenture Innovation Awards: Jury Prize Winner (R)
 * 2009 – Van Speijk Innovation Prize Runner Up (R)
 * 2010 – Deloitte Technology Fast50: Most Disruptive Innovator Benelux (R)
 * 2010 – Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards: Technology Innovation (R)
 * 2010 – The Next Web Dutch Startup Awards: Best Mobile App (R)
 * 2010 – GetJar Gettie Awards: Best App (All Catagories) (R)
 * 2010 – Netexplorateur Grand Prize - Claire Boonstra (R)
 * 2010 – LOEY Awards: Leading Online Entrepreneur of the Year - Maarten Lens-FitzGerald. (R)
 * 2011 – World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (R)
 * 2011 – Mobile Entertainment Awards: Best Location Company (R)
 * 2012 – Techtour Solutions Selected Company (R)
 * 2013 – Meffys Mobile Entertainment Awards: Technology Innovation Finalist (R)